Swabs provide an economical and non-invasive method for collection and transportation of biological samples from buccal, fecal, sweat, semen, whole blood samples and other bodily fluids. The swab samples can be collected at multiple sites then have to be transported to a processing location for molecular biological applications. Receiving locations running a large amount of samples for analysis can implement liquid handlers and magnetic processors to help aid in the processing of the samples. These instruments require that the samples be in 24, 96 or 384 well formats with 96-well formats being the most common. The receiving locations must take the received swab samples from the individual packaging then place them into a 96-well plate and correctly catalog the correct location of the swab well. The process of placing the samples in a 96-well format is manual and leads to possible sample switching in either placing the sample in the wrong well or documentation of the sample location within the well.
Swabs must be lysed to analyze the DNA, RNA or proteins from the cells contained on the swab. This generally requires the swabs to be placed in a lysis buffer that may require heating, mechanical, or enzymatic treatments. After lysis, the swabs must be removed from the liquid to obtain the desired DNA, RNA or proteins. Alternatives to swabs on the market such as whole blood can be invasive in their collection method while saliva collection devices exist on the market such as DNA Genotek Oragene collection devices but these require the donor to provide a large amount of saliva which can be difficult for children or animals. These existing collection devices then transfer the biological material to a stabilization solution which may be incompatible with the processing laboratories chemistry for DNA, RNA or protein extraction. The Promega SlicPrep 96 device allows the customer to raise and lower the swabs into a lysis buffer but cannot identify the location in which the swabs have been inserted and requires the laboratory to manually identify the locations.